68

This 1990 Russian reworking of the Star Wars: A New Hope poster is a little different from the Western versions.

enter image description here

I'm assuming the object at the top is the Death Star but who's the handsome devil at the bottom of the frame?

Skooba
  • 60,372
  • 26
  • 294
  • 368
Valorum
  • 689,072
  • 162
  • 4,636
  • 4,873
  • 29
    Looks a bit like Jabba to me – Steven Wood Feb 13 '17 at 13:31
  • 8
    Early concept for Vader? – Peter Feb 13 '17 at 13:32
  • 4
    @Peter - Unlikely. This is the original concept for Vader unmasked and it was drawn years after A New Hope. – Valorum Feb 13 '17 at 13:34
  • 1
    Reverse Image searching the image gives this http://www.antikbar.co.uk/news_and_events/detail/?nId=155 its from 1990 and Russians tended to draw without any knowlege of the films – Cearon O'Flynn Feb 13 '17 at 13:35
  • @CearonO'Flynn - I've edited to reflect that – Valorum Feb 13 '17 at 13:38
  • 1
    Related: http://www.cracked.com/article_16990_lost-in-translation-20-baffling-foreign-movie-posters.html – Darren Feb 13 '17 at 13:43
  • @Valorum I'd be surprised if there was only 1 concept for a film of this size. Not a million miles away if it was the result of a Russian artist interpreting the idea based on incomplete knowledge – Peter Feb 13 '17 at 13:59
  • 2
    Related, definitely not dupe : http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/152541/who-are-these-characters-on-the-new-hope-poster – Skooba Feb 13 '17 at 14:13
  • 3
    Definitely looks like Darkseid. No doubts in my mind. – Brevan Ellefsen Feb 13 '17 at 19:27
  • Though it looks like it has been thoroughly debunked, my first thought was Vader sans helmet. – Joshua Drake Feb 13 '17 at 19:58
  • Honestly looks like Yoda to me. Probably not, though. – jpmc26 Feb 14 '17 at 00:57
  • 1
    That's Jabba with his new disco ball, getting ready for another rager. – DCShannon Feb 14 '17 at 00:58
  • Could well be an interpretation of Jabba the Hut, given that by 1990, many Russians have probably already seen all three of the original movies, with Jabba being the "most recent" prominent villian (Return of the Jedi), and the first clearly alien character having a significant on-screen moment (in the New Hope re-release). Even if the artist hadn't seen the movies themselves, by 1990, Star Wars characters would have long since found their way into international pop culture, with Jabba being both iconic of the franchise and decidedly alien. – Anthony X Jun 21 '20 at 16:36

2 Answers2

75

It may not be anyone... consider this other Russian poster for Star Wars.

russian1

This is quite literally a "space cowboy". I mean one could argue it is supposed to be a depiction of Han Solo, but how could you prove it?

Here is another for Return of the Jedi that I have no idea what is going on...

russian2

Consider the excerpt from the answer given by @user931:

At that time, local artists produced posters for foreign movies without any knowledge of the films, which led to some unique designs.

In the end I think you have to take the poster at face value, in that they are "generic" depictions of "space things".

This seems to be a trend with foreign movie posters from various countries...

Lost in Translation: 20 Baffling Foreign Movie Posters by Cracked.com

15 Wildly Misleading Movie Posters from Around the World by Cracked.com

14 Hilariously Inaccurate Foreign Posters for American Films by Cracked.com

15 Grossly Misleading Movie Posters by Cracked.com

Community
  • 1
Skooba
  • 60,372
  • 26
  • 294
  • 368
57

From this page (which has this image embedded):

In 1990, Star Wars was finally released in Russia. At that time, local artists produced posters for foreign movies without any knowledge of the films, which led to some unique designs. This rare poster describes the movie as a “galactic Western” and features an imaginary image by Yury Bokser dominated by an unusual depiction of what could be Jabba the Hut and the Death Star with stars shooting out from the centre.

Valorum
  • 689,072
  • 162
  • 4,636
  • 4,873
user931
  • 115,946
  • 150
  • 581
  • 1,075
  • 23
    The most telling line for me is "without any knowledge of the films". – Skooba Feb 13 '17 at 13:58
  • 2
    @Skooba - Yup. Insert generic fantasy character. – Valorum Feb 13 '17 at 14:28
  • 6
    It could just be an advertisement for Jabba's new disco. – Irishpanda Feb 13 '17 at 16:00
  • 1
    Surely they were able to find one VHS of the movie to watch... I mean Star Wars came out 20 years prior and was a huge sensation. Seems like the author of your quote is just guessing as well. – TylerH Feb 13 '17 at 18:38
  • 9
    @TylerH The digital generation would never know the pain of incompatibility of regional analog signal standards used on VHS tapes. Even if you could import a VHS tape from US or Europe into USSR during the cold war and without Amazon, MESECAM based VCRs could barely play NTSC (US) or PAL (Europe) based tapes. – user931 Feb 13 '17 at 19:22
  • @user931 I'm aware of NTSC vs PAL, but for people doing work in the film industry (including art for the film industry), you'd think they would have thought of that. The notion of globalization was in full swing around then, after all, even with the Cold War having just ended. – TylerH Feb 13 '17 at 19:48
  • 2
    @TylerH Given that the general Russian public probably had next to no idea what Star Wars was, it would probably have been deemed more important to get visually-interesting posters that would draw crowds, rather than creating posters than actually followed the theme of the film. – Chris Hayes Feb 13 '17 at 21:51
  • @ChrisHayes That's assuming posters that actually follow the theme of the film would not draw crowds... – TylerH Feb 13 '17 at 21:57
  • I just looked at my Hildebrandt poster. I don't think it's accidental that Leia is front and center, but I wonder if it would have been considered too racy by Russian censors. – Barmar Feb 15 '17 at 17:57